> Even without Dawkin's book, you could very likely have still gone through the "edgy" phase. You're probably right, since r/atheism also exists; Dawkins is by

> Even without Dawkin's book, you could very likely have still gone through the "edgy" phase. You're probably right, since r/atheism also exists; Dawkins is by no means the only fount of edge. But I don't agree that such a phase is inevitable, independent of social influences which encourage it. Edgy atheism is a 'scene', a self-perpetuating subculture. It has no leaders or formal structure, yet it actively seeks out and recruits people who are in a compatible headspace. It's like being goth. People who are goth didn't all independently discover and adopt the fashion of black lipstick, black dyed hair and pseudo-Edwardian dress. They adopt these fashion choices because other people did so before them, and crowds naturally draw more people in. When you're adrift looking for a personality, it's easier to fall in with a scene that already exists than it is to find your own truly unique way. Scenes generally speaking are inevitable, an artifact of basic human psychology I'm sure, but I don't think any specific scene has ever been an inevitability. Goths specifically were not destined to exist as an inevitable consequence of human psychology, nor do I think the edgy reddit/Dawkins style of not believing in gods was inevitable. I can perhaps see an argument that edgy atheism is an inevitability given the social context of an oppressive christian society that gives people an axe to grind, but I'm far from convinced. Such a context might instead give rise to violent subculture that encourages terrorism against the oppressors. (We're fortunate that it didn't, but in other times and places such violence scenes have emerged in response to oppressive circumstances.) And as it is true that a more violent reaction to the circumstance was possible, I think it is conceivable that a less antagonistic response was also a conceivable possibility. It is conceivable to me that a subculture for "baby atheists" might instead have formed around the premise of demonstrating superior compassion, rather than antagonistic debate. Or to put this another way.. For any violent revolution in history, there may instead have been a relatively peaceful bloodless revolution. And for any relatively peaceful bloodless revolution, there may instead have been a violent one. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 had maybe about twelve hundred people die. Was that specific degree of bloodshed inevitable, given the oppressive circumstance? I think it might instead have been fifty thousand killed, or even fifty. In reality it played out the way it did, but I see no reason to believe it had to be this way specifically.